'Keep on Farming' drive honors Caleb Jurgens


Monticello FFA Chapter members were out in full force May 31 for the “Keep on Farming” drive for Caleb Jurgens, their late classmate. (Photos by Pete Temple)

Farm vehicles head up Main Street during the drive for Caleb Jurgens.
By: 
Pete Temple
Express Sports/Ag Editor

   Dozens of vehicles, mostly tractors and combines, made a trek from the Jones Regional Center (Kirkwood) to Monticello high school early in the morning on May 30.

   The Memorial Drive event was designed to honor Caleb Jurgens, the Monticello High School freshman and rural Hopkinton 15-year-old who was killed in a motorcycle-truck accident May 21.

   It carried the slogan, “Keep on Farming.”

   “It’s just a good way to honor Caleb,” said Keaton Hermsen, who will be an MHS senior in the fall.

   “I thought it was a great way for the student body to have one last emotional relief together,” Monticello FFA advisor Eric Schmitt said, “doing something that Caleb loved, and to show support to each other and the Jurgens family during this untimely tragedy.”

   A group of students had approached MHS principal Nick Schauf about putting a tractor and truck drive together in Caleb’s memory.

   “The students spoke with school administration and the Monticello Police Department to coordinate everything,” Schmitt said.

   On the day of the event, chapter members boarded tractors and combines, and were followed by trucks and cars, going from the Jones Regional Center (Kirkwood) up Business Highway 151, then east on Oak Street to the high school.

   “Caleb liked farming and tractors, so we had the tractors going, and then our FFA advisor had the idea of adding cars and trucks, because not everyone who wanted to represent Caleb may have a tractor,” Hermsen said.

   Schmitt said: “We also wanted to be conscious of community members that were trying to get to their day, while still honoring Caleb in a pretty amazing way that the student body organized.”

   A group of students from the Maquoketa Valley FFA Chapter attended, holding signs in support of Caleb as the vehicles rolled by.

   “Hopefully a couple years from now we can still have this going, and make it yearly,” Hermsen said.

   Added Carter Martin, another student about to enter his senior year: “In my opinion it makes us all stronger rather than tearing us all apart.”

 

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